Sign of the times

4

Louis arrived home to Eleanor packing up her stuff. She noticed him and gave him a little smile, but he could tell she had been crying. Louis gave her a hug. "You don't have to move out. I wasn't going to make you." She released her grip around him. "I need to do this. For me." Louis nodded. "If Benji ever comes over and you are too busy, you can let me take him. I'd think I'd miss him too much." "You were a perfect girlfriend you know," Louis said. "I was terrible Louis," she laughed out. Louis looked at her confused like he was missing something. "I mean we barely talked half the time. I knew you were unhappy, but I was in denial. I should have let you go along time ago," she admitted. "Don't do that. Don't put the blame on you. This was all me," Louis said, getting sadder by the minute. "You were right if that makes you feel better or worse." "Right about what. You have to be specific because I am right about a lot of things," she joked, causing louis to smile fondly at her. "About Harry," he practically whispered. "Oh," was all she said at first. Louis helped her fold up her shirts. "It makes me feel better actually," she broke her silence. "I like the thought of you two. For some reason it just makes sense." Louis coughed nervously just thinking about them being back together. "Did you see me differently when you realized that I liked...a guy?" Louis nervously asked, too afraid of the answer. "Honestly, I think it was the first time that I saw you for you and it wasn't because you liked a guy. It was because you loved your best friend. All the pain I could feel you hiding from me suddenly made sense." "How did you feel about this new perspective of me." "I didn't think of you as a different person. I just saw you as more open," Eleanor explained softly. Louis thought about the word open. It was the word Harry used when he spoke about himself during their break up. Suddenly, the word didn't frighten him anymore. It excited him. "Niall said that I should do what makes me happy no matter the consequences. What do you think I should do?" She grabbed his cheeks and kissed his lips, finally, for the last time. "I think you should do that to him and just let everything else out of your mind. You're making this too complicated," she smiled and removed her hands. He blushed a bit. "I'm sorry. I just had to kiss that adorable face one last time," she grinned and returned to packing. "Thank you," Louis said. They smiled at each other as if they were saying goodbye to their relationship and Louis went downstairs to sleep on the couch. He was too mentally exhausted to think another minute.

After the meeting with Simon, Harry spent the rest of his day with the girl Liam set him up with. Her name was Emma. He already made plans to hang out with her again. The next day, Harry spent most of his time in his hotel room trying to think of song ideas. He had writers block, though. He put a movie on to distract himself a bit and continue writing later. He started to fall asleep when he was woken up from knocking at his door. He opened the door to surprisingly find Louis standing behind it. Louis gave an awkward grin. Louis noticed very quickly that Harry did not have a shirt on. Harry let him in with hesitation and quickly put a shirt on. "What's this about," Harry asked suspiciously. Louis didn't say anything. He just kept pacing back and forth the span of the hotel room. Harry was worried for a second, but then started to get annoyed. Harry wasn't going to let Louis control his emotions again. He was officially done thinking about him. "Spit out whatever you wanted to say. An apology or something. You know like 'I'm sorry I said I wish you were dead' and I would say 'it's okay' and then you would just leave and make sure you'd forget that you said something wrong in the first place," Harry kept his arms crossed to emphasize his seriousness. Louis stopped pacing just to look at Harry. Harry's eyebrows were scrunched up. He was practically pouting. Louis just laughed to himself when he realized how cute Harry looked like this. "This is humorous huh," Harry said. Harry waited for Louis to say something, but his patience was running thin with him. "Speak or..." Louis cut him off, "Did you go to the roof that night? The day you wrote me that letter," Louis asked already knowing the answer. "Wha?" Harry was caught completely off guard. He started to blush. Up until now, Louis has always acted like they didn't date, so for Harry to hear Louis talk about something like this was surprising. Louis is just waiting for Harry's answer, locking eyes with him. It made Harry nervous. "No, I fell asleep like you did," Harry was waiting to hear Louis' ulterior motive for the question he asked. "I'm sorry I didn't meet you up on the roof. It was just too hard," Louis said. Harry was about to repeat his earlier statement about him not going up to the roof, but he looked into Louis' eyes and they looked so sad. He just didn't have the heart to keep pretending with him. Harry sat down on his couch and rubbed his temples. "I need you to know why I said that it would be easier if you were dead. And those were my exact words by the way. Liam changed them a bit," Louis sat beside Harry, but kept his distance. "It really doesn't matter and don't say 'well it matters for me to say what's on my mind so all you have to do is listen' because I don't care anymore." Louis just realized how badly he screwed things up. He really did play with Harry's emotions. "I said it because if I thought you didn't live in my life then I would not miss you as much. I couldn't listen to your songs, your voice. I couldn't watch you in a movie or an interview. It would be like losing you all over again," Louis' tone was strong. He needed Harry to hear and understand his words. "It was hard for me to hear and see you too, but it was harder not to see and not to hear your voice and that is why we never really worked don't you think. I cared too much and you never cared enough," Harry said. Harry was getting his emotions all riled up again, but he wasn't going to cry. He made sure of it. Louis, on the other hand, was on the brink of tears. "Oh God Harry your right! I let things come between us. I let us split apart." Harry saw the guilt in Louis' eyes and couldn't help but rub his back to comfort him. Louis looked up from the ground and into Harry's eyes. "You should have fought for me; convinced me that everything would have been okay," Louis said. Harry took his hand away from Louis and stood up just wanting to separate himself from Louis and his words as much as possible. "I am the one and the only one that fought for us. I mean how could you even say that right now. I mean I am so sick of you coming back into my life when I am finally in a good place and then you mess it all up again. You mess me all up again," Harry was livid. Louis tried to explain himself and what he meant but Harry wouldn't have any of it. "Just get out of the hotel, get out of my life, and go be happy with Eleanor and act as if I don't exist. You're good at it," Harry opened the door and was pointing out into the hallway. Louis was about to speak again, but Harry just shouted "out!" at him until Louis left. Louis stood still in the hallway not wanting to move. He could not have imagined that to have gone any worse. He knew he messed everything up, but he thought he could fix it. Now he was not so sure. Finally, he walked to his car and headed home.